Finding UAB and other Birmingham medical facilities to get easier

Finding places like UAB's North Pavillion hospital should get easier for downtown travelers. (The Birmingham News/Bernard Troncale)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Finding your way around Birmingham's ever-growing medical district downtown should get easier with a new way-finding sign program approved at this morning's Birmingham Design Review Committee meeting.

UAB is leading the effort to help those needing to find an emergency room in a hurry or those just looking to visit a loved-one in the hospital do so with much less confusion and fewer disruptions of traffic flow.

Sheila Chaffin, executive director for campus planning at UAB, said way finding is always an important part of planning, but becomes critical when you're dealing with medical facilities.

"When you're in need of medical attention, you don't need to waste time looking for an emergency room," she said.

The dozens of way-finding signs are becoming more necessary as the new children's hospital prepares to open and the new downtown baseball park is constructed, Chaffin said.

Also, the way-finding plan is part of an ultimate plan to help pull traffic off Interstate 65 and the Elton B. Stephens Expressway directly into the medical district without making University Boulevard the default artery for all things UAB, Chaffin said.

UAB Medical Center gets around 5,000 visitors per day, Chaffin said. Taking that traffic off University Boulevard would aid in congestion, she said.

The new signs will be attached to the same style of poles UAB uses as part of its lighting plan. The poles are designed to break away at the base if struck by a car or other accident.

The plan must now be approved as an adjustment to the UAB master plan and the Birmingham City Council is set to take up the matter at its meeting next week to approve the right-of-way variances needed to implement the new sign plan.